Colour Me Grey - Oh Wait! How About Silver?

"With influential people like Billie Eilish dyeing their hair grey, people of all ages are incorporating the look, and many who are naturally grey are no longer trying to cover it up."
Swasti Sarna, insights manager, Pinterest

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"[The study's new findings are] concerning [but not quite definitive]."
"We wouldn't make any recommendations off these findings. We need more evidence [of heightened risk of breast cancer linked to hair dye]."
"Researchers have been studying the possible link between hair dye and cancer for a long time, but results have been inconsistent."
"In our study, we see a higher breast cancer risk associated with hair dye use, and the effect is stronger in African American women, particularly those who are frequent users." 
"For the chemical straighteners, one of the big concerns there is formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen."
Alexandra White, epidemiologist, head, National Institutes of Environmental Health and Cancer Epidemiology Group

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The latest in hair fashion for elegant woman of the celebrity variety of a certain age appears to be acceptance of the inevitable; being newly relaxed about a head full of grey locks. It has become au courant in casual elegance to defy the years and allow nature to take its course in one's coiffure. Grey is in. Hair dye is out. Oh, perhaps not universally, but the trend is there, and proudly alive. Grey and silver. White? A shade too far, no doubt. It even has a stamp of approval from L'Oreal Paris and Vogue where silver was announced the hair colour of the year.

Now younger women not willing to be left behind though the years have yet to catch up, bleach and colour their youthful dark or blonde hair in such wan shades as titanium, blue steel, smoky grey and gunmetal even as many older women commit to continuing covering their grey/silver hair with artificial colouring, belying their newly acquired wrinkles. There is no one, single track. Facebook groups have sprung up naming themselves Gray and Proud, Going Gorgeously Gray and Silver Revolution, tips and photos included.

For years it has been bruited about that hair colour, particularly the very dark colours, have been linked to increased chances of acquiring dread cancer. When the panache of style and personal ego are concerned such 'urban legends' fail to make much of an impact; women have continued to use temporary, semi-permanent and permanent dyes to make themselves look more sensuously alluring. To themselves presumably, and anyone else looking to be impressed by the results.

Now, new research asks the question, is there indeed a risk inherent in the use of hair dye chemicals? Recently the International Journal of Cancer published the results of a study that reported African-American women who colour their hair with permanent dye every five to eight weeks become 60 percent likelier to be diagnosed with breast cancer than other women who don't colour their hair. All women included in the study had a family history of breast cancer.

For white women though, risk of contracting cancer was far less, though the risk was indeed elevated, even while no cause and effect had been established for either group. White women who dyed their hair every five to eight weeks were eight percent more likely, according to researchers, to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Over an average of eight years, researchers studied 46,709 women aged between 35 and 74. Though none of the participants had been diagnosed with cancer, all had at least one relative diagnosed with breast cancer.

Glamour

And of those women in the study, fully 55 percent used permanent hair dye. Throughout the study period 2,794 African-American and white women were diagnosed with beast cancer, with black women 45 percent more likely to be diagnosed, while white women were seven percent more likely. Study co-author Alexandra White estimated heightened risk as five additional cases of breast cancer for every one hundred black women, and one additional case for every one hundred white women.

Black women tend to be diagnosed with more aggressive forms of cancer, the end result that they are likelier to die from their cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, some doctors advise women to refrain from colouring their hair while pregnant; at the very least, not to colour their hair during the critical first trimester of pregnancy. Permanent dye causes lasting changes to the hair shaft, remaining in the hair until it grows out. Temporary dye washes out after a shampoo or two, while semi-permanent tends to need up to ten shampoos to wash away.